“How come Meg needs a guard now? Nathan wasn’t guarding when I was with Meg before.”
He didn’t want to tell the boy about the intruder, but if he didn’t say something, the pup would keep on pestering him and Nathan about why the Wolf on guard couldn’t play.
“A man came into the office. He was mean to Meg. We didn’t like that, so Nathan is there to make sure nobody else is mean to her.”
Sam looked out the window. Then he asked in a small voice, “Is he the man who hurt Mom?”
“No. Those men ran away. We’ll find them one day, Sam. We will. But the man who came into the office wasn’t one of them.”
“I want to be Wolf when I’m at the office.”
Simon glanced at the boy. “Meg can’t communicate the way the terra indigene do. You won’t be able to tell her what you learned in school today if you’re Wolf.”
“I can tell her when we get home. I can’t wear the harness in this form, so I have to hold the safety line in my hand, and sometimes I forget and drop it.”
“You don’t have to wear the harness anymore.” He wished the boy wasn’t so focused on that harness and leash. It made the other Wolves uneasy. Well, it wouldn’t bother any of them much longer. The pup had grown sufficiently in just a few days’ time that the harness wouldn’t fit him in another week.
Sam gave him an incredulous look. “If I don’t wear the harness, how am I supposed to pull Meg out of a snowbank when she falls in?”
Simon kept his eyes on the road. The boy had said when, not if. Just how often did Meg fall into a snowbank? Was she clumsy, or was it play? Or did she end up in the snow after getting tripped by a puppy?
“And Meg isn’t a good digger,” Sam continued. “As Wolf, I’m lots better at digging.”
“Is that why you were the one digging out the BOW when it got stuck in the snow yesterday?” Simon asked mildly.
Sam scooted down in his seat and mumbled, “You weren’t supposed to know about that.”
“Uh-huh.” He had fielded a dozen calls from Hawks, Owls, Crows, and a couple of Wolves who had watched that piece of idiocy and couldn’t wait to tell him about it. He found it interesting that none of them had offered to help. In fact, the Wolves told him they had deliberately stayed out of sight, letting Meg and Sam work it out for themselves. And they had. Between them, they had gotten the BOW unstuck and continued with the deliveries.
It also explained why, when he’d returned from an hour’s run with Blair and a few other Wolves, he’d found the television on and pup and prophet sound asleep on the living room floor.
Since she was spooned around Sam to keep him warm, Simon had figured it was only sensible to stay as Wolf and tuck himself against her back to keep her warm.
The fact that tucking up against her made him feel content had nothing to do with that decision. Nothing at all.
When they arrived at Meg’s office, Simon helped Sam fold his clothes and place them in one of the back room’s storage bins, then opened the door to the sorting room after the boy shifted to Wolf. The pup gave Meg an exuberant greeting, arroooed at Nathan, then began sniffing around the room for the cookies Meg had hidden.
“You have anything you want me to walk over to the consulate?” he asked.
“No, thanks,” Meg replied. “Darrell came by and picked up the mail.” She paused, looking puzzled.
He caught a whiff of uneasiness in her scent and took a step toward her. “Something wrong with him coming by?”
She shook her head. “Just that no one from the consul has come for the mail before this week.”
He debated about whether to tell her about Darrell’s scheduled monkey fuck, but he didn’t say anything because she suddenly yelped.
“Your nose is cold!” she said, looking down at Sam. “And don’t think I’m buying that ‘I was just checking for cookies’ look as an excuse to stick a cold nose against my ankle!”
Sam talked back at her, sounding quite pleased with himself, then trotted around the sorting table to resume his quest for cookies.
Grinning, Simon left the office and walked over to the consulate.
Darrell was at a desk, looking like he’d already caught the scent of a female in heat and was about to lose his brains over it. Giving the human a nod, Simon went up the stairs to Elliot’s office.
“You wanted to see me?” he asked when his sire looked up.
“Yes.”
Elliot gestured to the visitor’s chair, and Simon wondered which politician he was mimicking. He also wondered why the other Wolf looked uncomfortable.
“Everything still going well with Ms. Corbyn?” Elliot finally asked.
“Some reason it shouldn’t be?”
“I saw Nathan and Sam chasing her yesterday afternoon behind the office. They seemed . . . serious . . . in their pursuit.”
Ah. “Henry talked Meg into playing deer hunt, claiming that Sam needed to work on his skills in chasing game. I think he was mostly making sure that she got some exercise. Meg is convincing in her role as designated prey, which is why Henry wanted to keep them in sight—in case Nathan became too enthusiastic or another Wolf mistook the game for a real hunt. In the end, it will build up Meg’s muscles and stamina, and build up Sam’s muscles and stamina, and Nathan will have a good time romping with them as a reward for guard duty.”
Of course, listening to John whine yesterday about not being allowed to go out and play hadn’t done anything for his own eroding self-discipline—especially because he could tell just by watching that Meg really did make a good squeaky toy.
Elliot smiled. Then he chuckled. “It’s good to see the pup playing again. Now, if we can just get him out of that harness.”
“He says he needs it to pull Meg out of snowbanks,” Simon replied, his voice bland.
Elliot laughed. As the laughter faded, he sobered. “I’m sorry I struck her. Her instincts are odd but from the heart, I think.”
Simon nodded. It was a little annoying to have Sam quoting Meg about human things when she actually knew less about the regular human world than every member of the Business Association, but her lack of knowledge about the Others was working to their advantage. What other human would accept the label of prey in order for a little Wolf to chase her?
“Darrell is having his assignation this evening,” Elliot said.
“We agreed to let him use one of the rooms above the Liaison’s Office,” Simon said.
“He also wants permission to bring his companion to the Meat-n-Greens for dinner.”
“Why? It’s not a fancy place, if you want to impress a woman. You go to a human-run restaurant for that.”
“But it is in the Market Square, a place very few are allowed to see. Some women become quite stimulated by the thrill of the forbidden.”
“Do you know who he wants to bring in?”
“It’s the female who was sniffing around you. At least, Ferus said he smelled Darrell on her.”
Simon nodded. “Asia Crane.” Forbidden thrill. That explained why youngsters from the university or the business and technical college were always sniffing around HGR and A Little Bite, or spending an evening in the social center in the hopes of rubbing up against the terra indigene. But he’d had the impression Asia had been sniffing around for something more. Did humans gain some status among their own kind if they were allowed in the Courtyard’s Market Square? Maybe he would ask the Ruthie the next time she came into HGR. She was proving to be quite reliable for a human.
“Give him a guest pass for the Market Square,” Simon said. “Tell Darrell he can take his female into any stores that are open. But make sure he knows it’s a one-time pass.”